We’ve all heard that content is king and consistency is queen. We know that we need to be building our personal brand and that a part of that is publishing content on regular basis. We also have full-time jobs, and sometimes coming up with what to write about is harder than actually writing it. To help you solve the problem with idea generation, here’s 45 ways you can find inspiration for your personal or business blog posts:
How and Where to Find an Inspiration for Creating Content?
Number one is my favorite, as this is how I got the idea for creating this post. I was asked by a customer about how I find ideas for my blog posts. I answered him, but on my way home I realized how much more I could have shared with him. So Mike and everybody else, here you go:
- Answer Your Customer’s Questions
- If you don’t directly engage with customers, talk to your support, sales team, and management teams and ask them what some of the frequently asked questions are!
- Visit Forums or Review Sites
- See what people are saying on Quora or G2 Crowd and address their concerns in a blog post.
- Join LinkedIn Groups
- What are people discussing there? What do they struggle with?
- Join Facebook Groups
- What business needs do people need help with? Can you solve any of them or offer advice?
- Check out Industry News Sites
- Comment on the latest news.
- What’s Trending on Industry News Sites?
- Check out industry news sites and get inspired by their trending posts
- Write something similar or add your two cents.
- Attend Twitter Chats
- Attend and comment on some of the responses. What issues were people talking about?
- Write a roundup.
- Search Hashtags of Twitter Chats
- Even if you did not attend a certain Twitter chat, you can follow the stream
- You can learn from people’s answers and/or use them as an inspiration for content creation
- Here are some of the Twitter Chat hashtags we follow: #BrandChat, #H2HChat, #BufferChat, #HootChat, #BizapaloozaChat, etc.
- Use Your Twitter Feed
- What are people you are connected with on social media talking about?
- Track Hashtags
- Use hashtags and trending hashtags for inspiration
- We track hashtags related to our brand such as: #CRM, #SCRM, #Sales, #SocialSelling, #SocialSales, #B2BSales, #Marketing, #DigitalMarketing, etc.
- Your Webinar Roundup
- Has your company done a webinar? Repurpose the video content in a blog post
- Use Other People’s Webinars
- Have you attended a great webinar? Write about the key points discussed
- Write a Prediction Post
- Where do you think your industry is headed?
- Share Industry Pet Peeves
– What are some of the pet peeves you’ve observed in your industry?
- Interview Your Team
- Introduce some of your team members to your audience
- Ask them to share their productivity tips, the tools they use
- Interview Industry Experts
- Reach out to some of your peers and interview them about what they are passionate about
- Interview Influencers
- Ask industry influencers about their opinion on certain topics
- Many influencers are consultants and are very well informed about what the struggles of business owners are
- Use Survey Data
- Has your company done a survey? Talk about what you found out, what you learnt
- Use Statistics
- Have you seen an interesting statistic? Write about it 🙂
- Use the FAQ section on your competitor’s website
- Check out competitor’s social media accounts
- Look for the feedback their customers have, and the questions they ask
- Follow conference hashtags and see what people are talking about
- For inspiration, check out this list: 10 Marketing Conferences Entrepreneurs Must Attend in 2017 https://buff.ly/2l0U5JH
- Create a list of the best industry conferences in your area of expertise
- Get inspired by post like the one we shared above and create your own 🙂
- Does your company have an announcement to make? Don’t just publish a press release, write about it in a more laid-back way on your blog or LinkedIn Publisher
- Help a reporter out
- HARO is the most popular sourcing service in the English-speaking world, connecting journalists with relevant expert sources to meet journalists’ demanding deadlines and enable brands to tell their stories
- Google Alerts
- Sends you a notice anytime it finds a new page on the internet related to a search phrase of your choice
- Share Results of an Experiment
- Have you experimented with something? Have you AB tested anything? Did you run a heat map on your website? What did you learn?
- Share Results of an Analysis
- Have you analyzed any data? Did you play with data in Google Analytics? What did you find out?
- Share an Interesting Fact
- Have you heard an interesting fact on TV, on the radio about your industry?
- Share How You Overcame a Failure
- Have you made a mistake? How did you learn from it? Share it with others
- Share a Success Story
- How did you overcome some difficulties and succeeded later?
- Explore Comments Under Blog Posts
- Visit the comment sections on social media or blog sites
- Treat Demos like a Resource
- Do you give demos for people? What do they usually ask about?
- Monitor Keywords on Social Media
- What are your prospects/customers asking about on social media? Use social listening to find out — monitor keywords
- Share Your Struggles
- Is there a problem you and your team have discussed recently? Share it with your audience. Maybe they are facing similar issues and your thought process will help them. Or maybe somebody who have already solved problem like this will reach out to you!
- Share What Your Customers/Peers Struggle With
- Is there a topic you discussed with your peers or customers? What do they struggle with? There’s a big chance that your readers have similar issues.
- Elaborate on a Podcast Episode
- Did you listen to a great podcast episode? Write about the key points discussed, share it with your community and don’t forget to let the author of the podcast know as well. They will surely appreciate the promotion and will be glad to hear that their work is having an impact.
- Use Google
- Using Google to find out what people are searching for is a great way to come up with content ideas. Start typing a keyword or a phrase relevant to your business and watch the recommendations pour in:
- Use Google’s Related Searches
- After googling a phrase or a keyword, scroll all the way down to the bottom and review the related searches:
- Review a Book
- Did you read an interesting business book? Review it on the blog and share what you learnt with your readers. Be on the lookout for new releases by your industry influencers. We often review books on our blog from sales and marketing experts like Jim Keenan (Not Taught (What it Takes to be Successful in the 21st Century), Stu Heinecke (How To Get A Meeting With Anyone), Tim Hughes (Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers), Jeffrey Lipsius (Selling to the Point).
- Create Lists
- Recommend podcasts, blogs, news sites, TED talks, etc.
- Ex. 5 Must-See TED Talks To Improve Your Customer Support, 13 Marketing Podcasts You Will Love, Part 1. or 13 Marketing Podcasts You Will Love, Part 2.
- Teach People How to Use a Certain Feature of Your Product
- Ex. Create “Custom Table Settings” In Nimble! or CRM Declutter 101 – Tidying Up Your Contact Data For The New Season
- Teach People How to Use a Certain App
- Are you using a certain tool or an app that you love? Share it with others!
- Ex. 5 Browser Extensions For The Savvy Social Selling Pro or Social Media Marketing Apps to Save You Hours
- Interview Your Team
- Ask your team for their productivity tips/tools they use and write about it
- Share Your Thoughts on about a Conference
- Have you recently attended a conference? How was it? What did you learn? Write about it
- Share Your Experience
- Have you had a great/bad experience with sales, marketing, social media team of a certain company? Write about it (without name-calling!)
- Ex. Social Selling? Just Don’t Be Creepy!
